Fans Rush In as Cowboys Make Camp

Maybe he’s nurturing some childhood need, but Paul Gallegos loves summer camp. The 43-year-old Oxnard accountant waits all year for it, then never misses a day.

Of course, it helps that camp consists of two-a-day workouts held by his favorite football team, the Dallas Cowboys. And that it takes place across the street from his house, at a cavernous practice facility that has become the summer home of the five-time Super Bowl champions.

“I really do love this time of year,” said Gallegos, a die-hard fan whose home office is packed with Cowboy paraphernalia and whose Mercedes-Benz bears a personalized plate declaring his Texas-sized dedication to the team.

“This is Paul’s summer camp, Paul’s therapy for sure,” he said. “I’m not just a fan anymore. It’s a sickness.”

If that’s true, plenty of others have the fever.

Thousands of Cowboy supporters will attend the 21-day training camp, which kicked off July 30. Waving signs and wearing blue-and-white jerseys, hundreds arrive daily to clamor for autographs, cheer practices and take part in a miniature theme park of souvenir booths and interactive games dubbed “The Dallas Cowboys Experience.”

The training facility was built by Oxnard in 1985 for the Los Angeles Raiders, but the team abandoned the site a decade later when it returned to Oakland.

The city was not sorry to see the team go. Officials expected the Raiders to draw fans from across the country and generate badly needed tourist dollars, but those hopes quickly vanished when the team closed training camp to the public and draped surrounding fences with black tarps.

The Cowboys have been a different story. The team erected bleachers where supporters can watch practices for free and brought along a traveling museum featuring video highlights of big games and a glass case with Super Bowl rings and trophies.

“It really has been a boon for Oxnard,” said Councilman Andres Herrera, noting that the city was in the final year of its two-year contract with the team but hoped to soon hammer out an extension.

“This is America’s team, and people come from all over the country to watch these guys,” he said. “We hope the Cowboys keep coming back for years to come.”

Community involvement runs high at the training camp. Athletes from Santa Clara High School, a private Catholic school in Oxnard, perform community service by volunteering at the camp’s fun zone, an area where children can bounce down inflatable slides, have their photos taken in football uniforms and catch passes on wide swaths of artificial turf.

Other Oxnard-area high schools are taking turns staffing food booths, generating money for athletic programs.

“It’s an awesome thing for Oxnard,” said Hueneme High School parent Cecilia Ceja, who spent the last week grilling tri-tip and hot links for the school. “It has really put Oxnard on the map.”

Indeed, Cowboy fans come from all over. At the team’s Walk of Fame, Whittier resident Louie Bracamontes watched his two sons and a neighbor match their handprints and shoe sizes against former and current Cowboy players. The youngsters were blown away by the size-17 shoe worn by former defensive lineman Ed “Too Tall” Jones.

“They’re all excited,” said Bracamontes, admitting that he’s the biggest Cowboy fan of the bunch. “This team is well-liked everywhere.”

Nearby, at a big-rig truck that transforms into a store full of team merchandise, Ventura surgeon Shawn Skillern dug into his wallet to outfit his two sons in Cowboy hats and other paraphernalia. Skillern said he fell in love with the Cowboys when he was a child living in Dallas a few blocks from Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach. Now he’s instilling in his children a love for the game.

“I’m a huge Cowboy fan, so to have them show up in your backyard is awesome,” Skillern said.

Outside the practice field, perhaps the greatest expenditure of energy comes at the fences that separate fans from players as they walk to and from practice. There, autograph seekers shout out players’ names and urge them to come over to sign footballs, jerseys and just about anything else that has space for a signature.

The area closest to the players is restricted to youngsters 14 and younger. That’s how Samantha Dutton, 14, brother Patrick Smith, 13, and friend Kevin Gatti, 12, managed last week to park themselves in the front row, collecting signatures from Roy Williams, Al Singleton and other Cowboy standouts.

Turns out Samantha was really doing a favor for her father, Buddy Smith, who stood behind the youngsters and urged them to get every signature they could. The Glendora youths managed to grab only three as the players went to practice. “They all promised they’d sign after practice,” she said, throwing her arms around Dad. “I’ll be back. I love him, so I’ll do it for him.”